Previous Head of Webspam at Google, Matt Cutts has been on leave since last July and it was speculated that the 10-year veteran of the position wasn’t going to return. Cutts has been the mouthpiece for Google on SEO and algorithm issues for Webmasters, so since July the announcements have been coming to us via the Google blog, forums, YouTube channel, and conferences as opposed to coming from one specific person. Google had not come forward with anyone taking Cutts’ place—until now.

Unfortunately, the new employee holding the Head of Google Webspam title has not been officially announced, but Google did tell Search Engine Land that the new titleholder is only going to take over the job of managing Webspam, not Cutts’ other job as general spokesperson.

Emojis have become ubiquitous in text messages, private online messaging, and even blog posts and other written communications. But did you ever think Google would allow them in AdWords ads?

We recently discovered that AdWords is, in fact, allowing emojis in some ads. Our data scientist Mark Irvine ran some tests this week using (willing) client accounts and we have some early - and promising - results to share.

Kathleen Garvin is an online editor and analytics wrangler for The Penny Hoarder, the largest personal finance blog. She's also a contributing writer for I Want Her Job and started a beginner-friendly digital marketing blog, The Maroon House. Kathleen is the former blog editor at SEMrush.